Vander: Health Care Smugness

Another poll has confirmed how smug and self-satisfied Canadians can be when we’re invited to gloat over our national accomplishments.

Take health care, for instance. Approximately 74 per cent of us consider universal health care to be Canada’s single greatest “achievement,” Canadian Press reported this week – as though we invented it.

An additional 20 per cent of us think the national obsession with our government health monopoly is “somewhat important,” in a good way. Total smug satisfaction rate: 94 per cent.

According to the poll, that’s the highest level of national smuggery Canadians have for any of our national symbols and achievements, from our international reputation to our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, winning the War of 1812, the flag, passport, the monarchy, national anthem or even our economic record (which is invariably described these days as “enviable.”)

Coincidentally, a rather more useful study of health care was published in magazine form last week. It was the Fraser Institute’s ongoing analysis of how much our “free” medical care actually costs. The West Coast free market think-tank keeps track of how much each Canadian family actually pays for health care as we wait in increasingly longer lines for surgery and treatment.

We know it costs a lot – and we’re quite smug about it, as it turns out. But our national satisfaction might sag quite a bit if more Canadians realized that they’re paying through the nose for care which is not only more expensive than it is elsewhere in the world, it’s not as fast or as flexible. Which means it’s not as good.

In short, we’re paying more and getting less, which is nothing to be smug about.

The Fraser Institute found our health costs are rising three or four times faster than other life necessities, including food and shelter, and 1.6 times faster than our income.

The study found that a typical Canadian family of four will pay $11,401 in taxes this year for their health care. Individual care costs $3,707 per person, while care for single parent families with one or two children costs about $3,400.

The more you make, the more it costs you – which is what Canadians want. But are they aware how much it costs us to pay for “free” care for others?

Fraser economists Nadeem Esmail and Milagros Palacios calculate how much total tax we all pay in income taxes, health care “premiums” (a tax by another name), plus all the taxes on property, sales, corporate profits and of course massive government borrowing.

Then they deducted health care spending from the total. In 2011-12 the health bill turned out to be 24.3 per cent of the taxes collected, or just over $200 billion.

A family with an income of $55,271 pays $21,783 in taxes, $6,775 of which goes to health care. A family with income of $81,602 pays $35,871 in taxes, $8,703 of which is for health care. A family earning $128,094 pays $59,512 in taxes, $14,439 of which is for health care.

Before you rush to your computer to write a long letter to the editor explaining how fair and reasonable this seems to you, consider this finding by the economists:

“Between 2002 and 2012, the cost of public health care insurance for the average Canadian family increased more than twice as fast as the cost of shelter, roughly four times the as fast as food, and more than five times as fast as clothing.”

There is no sensible reason for that escalation, other than the fact it’s supported politically by all political parties.

Canadians slavishly devoted to the runaway spending of this health care system invariably challenge me and others who question its value: “So, you want the American system then?” – which is a dishonest argument.

No reasonable person wants the American system – not the old one, nor the new one coming. But most of us would gladly choose medical care as it provided quite excellently in Europe, Japan or dozens of other countries that don’t impose an oppressive government monopoly on health choices.

In nearly every other developed nation, governments provide most basic health care needs and allow their citizens to buy anything extra they want above and beyond the minimum.

That makes for better health care because it doesn’t have to be all things to all people. Most other countries also pay much less than we do for their better health care, and get it much faster.

Instead of fooling ourselves with more shallow, self-congratulatory “we’re happy!” polls, we should be demanding real-world comparisons of our system with the costs and performance in any other country – except that of the U.S., of course, which seems to be the only place in the world that spends more than Canada and still leaves people without care.

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